Mud,mud,glorious mud!

We went to Herrington Park in Sunderland today for the Northern Cross Country Championships. The weather was fine, even warm in the lovely mid-day sun, as the cold North-Easterly that has been with us most of the week seems to have gone.
The ground was a mixture of hard-pack in the shade from a good overnight frost, and softer, "I'm going to get very muddy later" patches that you just knew would be a killer later on in the day, and so it was!
The early races certainly benefitted from the conditions, but my "race" - the Men's Open, which was the last race and didn't start until 3:05pm, just didn't get that luxury. The last hill climb in particular, after nearly 7 miles of good old English Cross Country, was particularly tough going.
To top it all we, along with the majority of other cars in the parking field, got stuck and had to wait, in our case an hour and a half, for a tractor to pull us out, and even they were struggling with the conditions!
Still, we did get home eventually, but it didn't really turn out to be a great blipping day, and the abover is my best offering :(